NSWE Investment

[West Derby Villan]

Aston Villa play at Villa Park.
If you want to tear the soul out of the club, then move the club.
It would destroy what we know as our club.
Show me one major English club that has pulled this off.
Look at the Arsenal fans know campaigning to get some atmosphere at home games,if that is what people really want count me out.

This, this this this, this this, this, this.

This

[ChicagoLion]

Aston Villa play at Villa Park.
If you want to tear the soul out of the club, then move the club.
It would destroy what we know as our club.
Show me one major English club that has pulled this off.
Look at the Arsenal fans know campaigning to get some atmosphere at home games,if that is what people really want count me out.

There's no less atmosphere at the new Arsenal ground than there was at Highbury.  The problem is all seater stadia and the more gentrified nature of the game these days.  It all depends on what you mean by "pulled off".  Man City's new stadium is better in every conceivable way than Maine Road ever was.  I haven't been to the new Spurs ground yet, but it looks amazing.  None of the Bolton fans on my wife's side of the family have ever been nostalgic for Burden Park.

Yep, I think 'show me one club that have pulled this off' gets pretty easily answered with Man City.

If you like soul less mega stadia, fine. It’s all a bit contrived, corporate and sanitized.
But I get the point when the starting point was Maine Road.

[cdbearsfan]

I do understand why many would want to stay, and if we can expand then that would be ideal.

I think a new stadium would only be discussed if we couldn't expand.

Given a choice between playing in front of 40,000 at Villa Park, or 60,000 a few miles away, I would go for the latter every single time. Even though it would, selfishly, probably be bad for me. Reducing my chances of getting Wembley tickets if we ever get there.

The emotional investment in Villa Park is not a sufficient reason to deny 20,000 people the opportunity to attend Villa home games.

[West Derby Villan]

I do understand why many would want to stay, and if we can expand then that would be ideal.

I think a new stadium would only be discussed if we couldn't expand.

Given a choice between playing in front of 40,000 at Villa Park, or 60,000 a few miles away, I would go for the latter every single time. Even though it would, selfishly, probably be bad for me. Reducing my chances of getting Wembley tickets if we ever get there.

The emotional investment in Villa Park is not a sufficient reason to deny 20,000 people the opportunity to attend Villa home games.

I'm sure a good architect could design a 60,000 stadium on the existing Villa Park footprint

[cdbearsfan]

Yes, and if they can I'll be happy. Although the previous Witton Lane architect did a shit job. And regardless of what plans we put forward, they'd still need to obtain planning permission.

[Risso]

Yep, I think 'show me one club that have pulled this off' gets pretty easily answered with Man City.

Except that ground was built as the Commonwealth Games stadium for Manchester 2002 not as an expansion for a football club. The club moved in years later as an expedient decision to develop the Maine Road area with the city council. Totally different to Arsenal and Spurs situations.

Citeh situation is more like the Wet Spam except you then need to wash your hands after every meeting with those porn-peddlers ...

The question wasn't about 'how' it happened, it was simply about moving to a new ground.

[ChicagoLion]

I can not separate the Club from the Location.
I know that there are lots of supporters that will stop going and that means future generations won’t become Villa fans.
It will irreversibly change the Club, I think people should think a bit more deeper about heritage and authenticity and what will be lost.

[Lastfootstamper]

Play on the moon, I'll still go.

[Risso]

I can not separate the Club from the Location.
I know that there are lots of supporters that will stop going and that means future generations won’t become Villa fans.

Well, the whole idea is that MORE fans will be able go, so with all due respect, that's rubbish.

[cdbearsfan]

I can not separate the Club from the Location.
I know that there are lots of supporters that will stop going and that means future generations won’t become Villa fans.
It will irreversibly change the Club, I think people should think a bit more deeper about heritage and authenticity and what will be lost.

If you had been watching us in the 1890s, would you have abandoned the club when they left Perry Barr?

[cdbearsfan]

I can not separate the Club from the Location.
I know that there are lots of supporters that will stop going and that means future generations won’t become Villa fans.

Well, the whole idea is that MORE fans will be able go, so with all due respect, that's rubbish.

I think plenty of West Ham fans said they wouldn't go if they left Upton Park. Maybe a few didn't, but they've still massively increased their support.

[brentastonb6]

I'm all for optimism, but let's wait until we get into the real action before we see if a new expanded ground is merited. I'd love it to be the case, but even during the relative success at the start of the lerner years it wasn't as if we were consistently selling out our current ground. Things *might* be different now, and obviously there's no harm in discussing it theoretically, but we're miles away from being able to discuss it as a viable option right now.

In any event, i would have thought that the north stand could be re-developed to get us up to around 50,000?

Quite right, the planning consent we obtained just for the redevelopment of the North Stand would increase Villa Park’s capacity to 53,000 for starters. The city council wants and needs a world class venue , we need it not only for football but for major artists to be able to play here in our City too. As for moving ? No way Jose, use the money to relocate the residents from any local roads likely to be affected by our expansion . We are Aston Villa and this is where we belong.

[ChicagoLion]

I can not separate the Club from the Location.
I know that there are lots of supporters that will stop going and that means future generations won’t become Villa fans.
It will irreversibly change the Club, I think people should think a bit more deeper about heritage and authenticity and what will be lost.

If you had been watching us in the 1890s, would you have abandoned the club when they left Perry Barr?

My Uber app says it is connecting with 5 Tardis drivers in my area.

[ChicagoLion]

I can not separate the Club from the Location.
I know that there are lots of supporters that will stop going and that means future generations won’t become Villa fans.

Well, the whole idea is that MORE fans will be able go, so with all due respect, that's rubbish.

I think you have missed the point.

[paul_e]

I can not separate the Club from the Location.
I know that there are lots of supporters that will stop going and that means future generations won’t become Villa fans.
It will irreversibly change the Club, I think people should think a bit more deeper about heritage and authenticity and what will be lost.

There's a balance, I've taken my kids once (about 18 months ago) and they're not interested in going again partly because they didn't like the ground and didn't enjoy the trip to get home afterwards (to be fair we were in the doug eliis stand and I know the Holte and Trinity are better). If there are options to improve facilities then not doing so because of nostalgia will be a much better way of losing the next generation than some supposed threat that people wouldn't go if we moved (it might be true for a very small number of people but I reckon within a year most of them would be back).

I'm not even advocating moving, I just think that the logistics of modernising the ground where it is would leave us groundless for about 2 seasons, and that would do much more harm than moving, especially if we ended up completely rebuilding anyway (which would probably be needed).

As i posted yesterday, the size of the plot we own is just too narrow, To keep the ground were it is but remove the constraints you'd need to buy out a massive chunk of Trinity Road, Witton Lane and Nelson Road, you'd then have to buy the gardens on Witton Lane and a big chunk of the park. Even then the Witton Lane side would be very narrow after you'd put the road back in (it's a B road so there's no chance you'd get away with not replacing it) so you'd probably extend a bit to take the near side of Holte Road as well.

After all that you could end up with a plot like this:



The niggle is that it'd be pushing on 2040 before you'd bought all that land and got all the permission to move roads, handled all the resident complaints, etc. Liverpool are often used as an example but it took them more than 20 years to complete the process and caused a lot of problems - https://www.theguardian.com/football/david-conn-inside-sport-blog/2013/may/06/anfield-liverpool-david-conn

This is why I'm of the opinion that if we see a realistic need for a 55-60000 stadium then we need to be open to moving a few miles away from where we are.